2006-01-11

The amusingly named discount air carrier Wizz Air will be introducing a line between London and Zagreb on 27 March with one-way fares starting at 43 Euros, and a promotional fare starting at 33 Euros. That is more than the 15 Euros that B92 is reporting (though they do specify, "before airport taxes"), but still one heck of a price. Zagreb, prepare yourself for a rush of drunken weekenders.

Chantelle W has some nice photos of holiday lights in Belgrade. And today's Blic has portraits of Lepa Brena's doggies. She has four of the critters, but Blic won't have a direct link to the article until tomorrow, when I will post it.

2006-01-10

You file charges, you get letters. As linked by Ed (in his flawless English), it looks like when Dragan Vasiljković opened his new checking account, he passed on the toaster and got a free poison pen instead. It is possible that his new profession as golf instructor has him thinking about knees more than a person ought to.

Via War and Piece, a portrait of the butchers' bonhomie down Scheveningen way. And why would erstwhile colleagues not socialize, when there is nobody with whom they have more in common than one another?

2006-01-08

Just did a bit of pazarenje yesterday at the Market Basket in Chelsea, recommended by a friend for their selection of Balkan products. It is one of those huge supermarkets in which you feel a sense of accomplishment for having got from one side to the other (a local family-run chain, though, no cold dead hand of the Sainsbury Corporation here). In fact there is a small section in the eastern part of the "Ethnic" aisle, but it has many of the basic necessities: vanilla sugar, kiseli kupus from Macedonia in a jar, Bosnian mineral water. The meat section also has the right kind of suho meso for sarme and pasulj. But the real wealth of the place is in products from Central and South America. The selection is not just limited to the mediocre products of the Goya company, but includes all the sizes of dried corn a person needs, several brands of masa harina, and frozen and refrigerated pupusas and arepas. Not necessarily a wildly lucky find, but good enough to be worth some return visits. Be ready for crowds.

Update: A friend of East Ethnia observes that not everybody lives at a convenient distance from Chelsea, but that people in this category may be able to use the services of this online distributor. I have never ordered from them, and so cannot recommend one way or another, but they do seem to have a nice set of offerings. Though I would be inclined to take a pass on the frozen ćevapi by mail, myself.